With each successive presidency, these tailwinds seem to be blowing stronger. A memo written by Harry Truman’s advisers in the fall of 1947 would be unimaginable today, given how the modern presidency has evolved.

“Since he is president, he cannot be politically active until well after the July convention,” advisers Clark Clifford and James Rowe wrote. “… He must be president of all the people and not merely the leader of a party, until the very last minute.”

The quote appears in Brendan J. Doherty’s important new book, “The Rise of the President’s Permanent Campaign.”
Mr. Doherty, an associate professor of political science at the U.S. Naval Academy, writes that distinctions between governing and campaigning have been steadily eroding as each new president uses the office to advance his re-election prospects.

The small White House staff of Truman’s day has given way to a huge operation with a dedicated Office of Political Affairs and senior aides in the West Wing bent on winning a second term.

With taxpayers picking up the tab, presidents make repeated visits to battleground states for official speeches, nourishing ties to voters.

As a candidate for president in 2007, Mr. Obama decried the politicization of George W. Bush’s White House, saying the office should not be used as “another arm of the Republican National Committee.”

There was a legitimate beef here, it would turn out. In 2011, a government watchdog agency issued a report saying Bush White House aides had violated the Hatch Act, the law meant to restrict federal employees from taking part in partisan political work.

Still, by some measures the focus on reelection has hardly abated under Mr. Obama.

Data compiled by Mr. Doherty show that as of the summer of 2011, Mr. Obama had attended 121 fundraising events. By contrast, Jimmy Carter had attended 44 fundraisers at a comparable point in his term; Ronald Reagan, 63; George H.W. Bush, 90; Bill Clinton, 74; and George W. Bush, 84.

Mr. Obama also kept up the trend of choosing battleground states as the venue for official speeches and appearances. Prof. Doherty offers as an example February 2009 – Mr. Obama’s first full month in power. On the 9th he ventured to Indiana, a state that he carried in the ’08 election, the first Democrat to do so since Lyndon Johnson. There followed trips to the mother-of-all-battlegrounds, Florida; another swing state, Colorado; Arizona, a state that Obama advisers had once thought to be within reach in the ’12 election; and North Carolina, a state that Mr. Obama barely carried in ’08.

A president has an edge over his opponents in one regard: His campaign is positioned to save money on travel.

It is up to the White House to decide whether presidential trips constitute political or official travel. Taxpayers pick up the cost of trips deemed official in nature. Even if the White House determines the trips are political, campaign funds need only cover part of the total cost. Taxpayers foot the bill for Secret Service, military aides accompanying the president and myriad other expenses.

All this amounts to a built-in advantage for an incumbent, which may help explain why no president has lost a re-election bid in a generation.

Robert Keith Gray, a former Eisenhower administration official and author of the book, “Presidential Perks Gone Royal,” said in an interview: “With the perks that he has it would be almost impossible for him not to get himself re-elected.”

About Washington Wire

Washington Wire is one of the oldest standing features in American journalism. Since the Wire launched on Sept. 20, 1940, the Journal has offered readers an informal look at the capital. Now online, the Wire provides a succession of glimpses at what’s happening behind hot stories and warnings of what to watch for in the days ahead. The Wire is led by Reid J. Epstein, with contributions from the rest of the bureau. Washington Wire now also includes Think Tank, our home for outside analysis from policy and political thinkers.